Monday, 2011 October 03
My wife and I were both back in Michigan/Ohio for a wedding around October 1st. I came back to Seattle on the 2nd but Krista stayed in Toledo until the 14th. I decided to take advantage of my freedom by trying some new recipes, some of which I didn't think she'd be a fan of.
For my first night of bachelorhood I broke out an Italian recipe that I learned when I spent two weeks in Rome visiting my friend Josh. He spent several years there teaching English. When I was there he was dating an Italian woman named Serena (now his wife). One day we went to the local open-air market and they had some really nice fresh mussels. Serena bought some and for supper we had a wonderful pasta-and-mussels dish. I got the recipe (and later learned that it was in an English-language Italian cookbook I had purchased while I was there, on the advice of Josh). This is one of my go-to recipes when Krista is out of town, as she doesn't like the texture of mussels.
That was Monday. On Friday I tried something rather different - pan-fried duck steaks with roasted parsnips. I'm sure I've had duck before but it's been a very long time and I don't remember the context any more, so I was very intrigued by this. I got the recipe from The Improvisational Cook, a cookbook I bought several years ago at Powell's in Portland. I learned several valuable lessons here:
- While this cookbook has a lot of great ideas in it, the recipes themselves are a little short on detail. I had to figure some steps out on my own.
- The duck breasts I had were massive and, even though I thought I followed the timing guidelines, were pretty much raw in the middle. I personally didn't have a problem with this, but I can see how some people would.
- Even after rendering during cooking there was still a thick layer of duck fat on top of the breasts. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat that or not, but I ended up cutting it off.
- Shallots fried in duck fat are absolutely delicious. But then again, my understanding is that anything fried in duck fat is delicious.
Next up was turkey pot pie. If you're thinking of the typical American pot pie, you're wrong. This is actually a Pennsylvania Dutch dish that my mom used to make, so named because it's made from "bot boi" noodles. I had gotten the recipe from mom, although she was somewhat nebulous about the details. I did the best I could and it turned out damn good, in my opinion. Not as good as hers, of course, but a solid first effort. This is basically soul food for me and I'm looking forward to making it regularly from now on.
Finally, because I didn't have enough leftovers yet, I made a new beef short rib recipe. I absolutely love beef short ribs. My wife is less enamored of them. Normally I make a wine-braised slow-cooker recipe. This time I tried something different, a sherry-braised dutch oven version. It was good but, honestly, I prefer my old standby.
Sunday, 2011 September 18 Sunday, 2011 October 23